"PHILADELPHIA, April 27, 1775. Extracts of Letters from BOSTON, per post."

This May 6, 1775, issue of John Dixon (d. 1791) and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette illustrates how news of Lexington and Concord spread throughout the colonies. On the first page in the middle column are extracts of letters from Boston about the battles. As was common practice, the extracts had been lifted directly from another newspaper, in this case Story & Humphreys’s Pennsylvania Mercury, and Universal Advertiser. Story & Humphreys’s had published them in its issue of April 28, 1775, among other letters about Lexington and Concord gathered from several express riders from various locations.